Published: September 18, 2026
MONROVIA – Liberia opened a dedicated office Thursday for the team designing its second Millennium Challenge Corporation compact, a deal the government aims to sign by December 2027 to fund new power transmission lines and rewrite the country’s mining law.
By Roseline Gbessagee
Minister of State for Presidential Affairs Samuel A. Stevquoah, who is also acting chair of the Cabinet, opened the office on behalf of President Joseph Boakai. Until now, the Compact Development Team had worked out of the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning. Finance Minister Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan said the new building was “financed by the government through this budget.”
“This compact, if designed right and if implemented right, as I know it will be, it will bring electricity to our people, more electricity to our people, to our communities, and to our industries,” Stevquoah said.
At the same ceremony, the outgoing top U.S. diplomat in Monrovia warned that Washington cannot fix the country’s investment climate for it. U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Joseph Zadrozny, who said his time in Liberia is ending, used his remarks to put conditions on the partnership.
“We cannot make Liberia enforce its own laws. We cannot make institutions honor contracts. We cannot create transparency where officials choose opacity. We cannot want a better investment climate more than Liberia does,” Zadrozny said. “Those choices belong to Liberia.”
He said Boakai’s government has repeatedly declared the country open to foreign business. “I hope it is,” he said, adding that “Liberia cannot build its economy, the economy that it wants, through assistance alone.”
Zadrozny said investors put their money where contracts are upheld, regulations are consistent and disputes are resolved fairly. He tied that directly to the mining sector, saying that “addressing illegal mining, whether local or involving foreign actors, helps safeguard national revenue and supports responsible development.”
He said the choice is not between the United States and other foreign partners. “Liberia should demand more from everyone,” he said, and listed the standards: “Obey Liberian law. Operate transparently. Pay what you owe. Employ Liberians. Train Liberians.”
The second compact has two projects. The first, which MCC calls energy sector transformation, covers transmission, electricity sector governance and workforce development. The second covers mining governance and investment facilitation. National Coordinator Alieu Faud Nyei said the government originally submitted three concept notes. MCC’s Investment Management Committee merged the two energy notes into one and approved the mining note as submitted.
Nyei said MCC told the team “the quality of the concept notes were extremely, extremely good.” He said the notes came back without major changes, which he described as unusual among compact countries.
The team is now in what MCC calls the joint design stage, turning the concepts into a detailed project design. Nyei said the design document should be finished by March 2027, and MCC’s Investment Management Committee should take it up in July. The MCC board, which he said is chaired by the U.S. secretary of state, should consider it in September. The two governments would then negotiate the compact’s terms in October and November, with signing targeted for December 2027. He called the schedule “a very very hard timeline.”
How fast money moves after signing, he said, will depend on how quickly Liberia meets the compact’s conditions. He said implementation could begin in 2028 or 2029.
Under the transmission project, the team is weighing eight lines and eight substations. Nyei named a Buchanan-to-Monrovia line, which he said could draw businesses out of congested Monrovia, and work on the Paynesville substation. He called the substation a network hub that is too small for its importance.
He said the most ambitious option is a long line from Botota into Maryland County, which is still being scoped because of its length. The team is running multi-criteria analysis, power system modeling, corridor screening and cost estimates. The goal is to decide which lines the compact takes on, which the government builds itself and which lack enough data.
On governance, Nyei said the compact would pursue clearer rules for independent power producers and private participation in distribution. It would also pursue deeper links to the regional power market, so Liberia can import power during shortfalls and sell any surplus, along with utility reforms on revenue protection and metering.
Nyei said the team is working with the Finance Ministry to move government institutions from postpaid to prepaid electricity. He said the ministry also needs to budget adequately for those institutions’ power bills so the switch goes smoothly.
On mining, he said the current law is more than 20 years old. He said the government adopted a mining policy in 2010 but never followed it with a new law, relying instead on piecemeal amendments. The team plans to draft a new law and a model mineral development agreement by the end of 2027, working with the Law Reform Commission.
He said the plan also includes an airborne geophysical survey, starting with the Harper Quadrangle, so the government knows what lies underground before it negotiates with investors. He explained why that matters under the current system, where companies explore under a license and then return to bargain.
“If I went in there and I found something, I have all of the incentive to under-declare when I come forward for contract negotiation,” he said.
He said the team has grown to 13 and should reach about 19 once recruitment is complete. MCC has three to four follow-up missions planned for October, and the Liberian team is due to travel to Washington in November.
Ngafuan cautioned the team that the public is judging it by speed.
“The challenge we face is to move fast,” Ngafuan said. He acknowledged that parts of MCC’s timeline cannot be changed. “We can’t short-change on quality. But we should not allow delays that are avoidable to happen,” he said, adding that people “need power and they need them as early as yesterday.”
Ngafuan said the mining sector was the biggest contributor to growth over the past year, accounting for 70%. He said the national budget stood at about 750 million when the current government took office and is now about 1.3 billion. He did not state the currency. He said preparations for the 2027 budget are underway.
Liberia Electricity Corporation Managing Director Mohamed M. Sherif said, “Demand is growing faster than at any time in our history.” He said the utility cannot fund the needed expansion from its own balance sheet.
“LEC welcomes private sector participation in Liberia’s electricity sector,” Sherif said. He said the corporation is advancing solar concessions in Nimba and Grand Bassa counties. He also said it is talking with independent power producers in solar, thermal, hydro and cross-border supply.
Sherif said private investment depends on a capable grid, a sound tariff framework, a creditworthy buyer and competitive procurement. “This is why sequencing matters. It is not a barrier to investment. It is what makes private investment sustainable and bankable,” he said.
Amara Kamara, a commissioner of the Liberia Electricity Regulatory Commission, said the regulator itself was created through the first MCC compact. He said it has since licensed private operators alongside LEC.
Kamara said the commission has cut the average electricity tariff to 22 cents per kilowatt-hour from 25 cents. He said it has opened regional offices in Harper and Ganta and is finalizing others. “We want each and every Liberian to have access to reliable and yet affordable electricity,” he said.
The first compact ran from 2016 to 2021. Zadrozny said it put US$146.3 million into rebuilding the Mount Coffee hydropower plant, part of a US$257 million overall investment. Thomas B. Kanneh, senior economist on the development team, said that compact also helped grow LEC’s customer connections from roughly 35,000 to nearly 157,000. Zadrozny also cited a five-year, US$173 million bilateral health cooperation memorandum between the two governments.
Stevquoah thanked Zadrozny and said the diplomat is retiring after 33 years in diplomacy. Stevquoah also noted that the office is reached by stairs, and asked whether the team planned to hire anyone with a disability. He said Nyei told him additional rooms downstairs would accommodate more staff.
“So I now declare these offices open,” Stevquoah said.
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